DIY Eco-Gifts For The Zen Mediator On Your Holiday List

The holidays are busy. Busyness is like an addiction. To shed the stresses of a busy life, it’s good to strike a balance. Many of my friends practice meditation to break the busyness cycle.

The holiday festivities are at their peak. Is there someone on your list whose meditation practice brings them comfort and joy? Slow down the busyness of the season with these 5 spirited and grounded DIY gifts.

5 DIY Gifts for the Zen Mediator

Harmony - Make Bamboo Wind Chimes.

Tranquility - Frame soothing images in Repurposed Windows Frames.

Comfort - Sewing a Meditation Pillow not only gives root to restorative positions, store it can be a meditative act in itself.

Peace - Make Shell Candles to give your practice gentle light.

Stillness - Make a Buddha Snow Globe. Inscribe this Buddhist phrase:

"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."

Photo: via Flickr

DIY Eco-Gift Guide For The Unexpected House Guest - (Not) On Your Holiday List

Right about now (a few days before Christmas), everything is amped up - the gifts, the grub and the guests! We can plan and prepare, but who can prepare for the unexpected house guest?

They say the best gifts are unexpected. They (whoever "they" are) also say, house guests are like fish, they both begin to smell after a while.

I really love entertaining house guests, even the unexpected kind (who smell lovely). But unexpected house guests remind me of upside down cakes. These cakes push the boundaries of cooking – are they bottomless or topless delectables? Where does it begin and end? Anyway, the same can be true for house guests – What are the boundaries?

The first question I ask is, "How long do you plan on visiting?" Once we've got that set, we're pretty much good to go. I like to make a few easy gifts and store them away, just in case…

DIY Water Carafe This is a quiet little gift (of the upside down kind) that sends a loud message to your guests that plastic water bottles don't belong in your home.

What you need: A few glasses or a bottle and a glass - one tall and narrow, and one short and wider (like the ones in the image above).

What to do: 1. Place a tall narrow glass bottle next to the bed. 2. Cover the tall glass with a shorter and wider one. 3. You can put a recycled sleeve cup cozy onto the glass to add a touch of warmth to the gift.

Photos: Remodelista, Noel Hendrickson/Getty Images from Planet Green

DIY Eco-Gift For The Traveler On Your Holiday List

It is a nightmarish holiday season for European travelers. A high-octane storm blanketed areas of Europe during the peak of the holiday shopping and travel season. Huffington Post reports that Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark have shut down runways and posted cancellations or delays on many flights.

Scenarios like this can be so stressful for travelers. Stranded for hours and sometimes days, makes packing for the unknown challenging. What do travelers need? Matt Gross, author of the The New York Times blog, The Frugal Traveler believes travelers need to lighten up - "Waste is the antithesis of frugality, and unnecessary belongings can make travel more difficult than it already is."

A gift for a traveler should be: 1. Something that takes up very little space. 2. Something that would be a breeze to get through the scrutiny of airport security. 3. Something easy to carry.

When I asked a master adventure traveler, and the author of Black Smoke, Margaret De Wys what she always takes with her when she travels, her response was, "A journal to write in."

Giving a handmade journal is a thoughtful personalized gift that can be used for the culmination of an eco-globetrotting trip to save the world, or a place to store the utterances and frustrations of a day spent in an airport during a snowstorm.

DIY Travel Journal

Here is a photo journal tutorial from Photojojo (a fabulous resource). It can be made using sugarcane fiber, reclaimed or recycled paper, with inner pockets for storing maps, scraps of fabrics, coins and mementos. I like that the spine opens flat for drawing and writing across the pages.

Here are 10 Reasons To Write In a Journal and for 5 more DIY Journals CLICK HERE.

Photo: Photojojo

DIY Eco-Gifts For The Pet Lover On Your Holiday List

Naughty or nice, our pets love the holidays. My pooches catch the energy of all the holiday activity, but they don't always get what they want. Sure, they get unconditional love and romps in the snow, and hugs from guests, but they want more. They want cookies. Pets (especially dogs) suffer from severe cookie envy. They want holiday treats too.

Make these healthy dog treats to satisfy their holiday cravings.

Keep The Holidays Safe For Pets

Last year, I asked my sister-in-law, Dr. Carol Gamez of the Georgetown Veterinary Hospital, what pet owners can do to keep their pets safe and healthy.

1. So as to avoid an accident, keep your Christmas tree well anchored. This will prevent a curious feline or dog from knocking it over.

2. The use of tinsel, string or yarn to decorate the tree should be avoided, as these can potentially cause a life-threatening blockage if ingested by your cat.

3. Since cats love to chew on plants, keep Poinsettias in areas that the cat cannot access. Although not necessarily poisonous, they can cause serious gastrointestinal symptoms if ingested.

4. Never leave holiday candles burning in areas that can be accessed by your pets, as they could knock them over a cause a fire.

5. During the holiday season, we all tend to overeat. Sweets and high fat foods should not be given to your pets. And don't be tempted to feed them off the table. This encourages begging and bad manners.

6. After a holiday meal, enjoy a healthy walk and bring your furry friends too. Your dog will enjoy the exercise.

7. If it's chilly outside, keep your dog warm with a winter coat especially if they are a short-coated breed.

8. Salt on the road can harm your pet's feet. If at all possible, avoid salted roads. If not possible, dog boots can be worn. Or, simply shorten the walk. Then rinse your dog’s feet with warm water to remove the salt after the walk.

Thanks, Carol!

Photo: Jen Kiaba

DIY Gifts For The Gym Rat On Your Holiday List

We all tend to overindulge during the holidays. Did you know that most people pack on a lasting few pounds? My scale is already creeping up. Here's the official skinny on holiday weight gain and people of a certain age: "Most people don't ever lose the pound of weight they put on during the holidays, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Since the average weight gain during adulthood is about one to two pounds a year, that means much of midlife weight gain can be explained by holiday eating."

OK, enough of that nonsense. Let's find a fun way to keep the weight off. I like to encourage my workout enthusiasts to get a wintery workout - to embrace the crisp air and fresh snow by hitting the slopes, going ice-skating or just taking a walk in the woods.

When I was growing up my dad built an ice rink in our backyard each year. One of my fondest memories is of my hockey-player dad all bundled up on snowy evenings heading for the backdoor. He would announce that he was going out to "water the rink". Here is a post called, The Home Ice Advantage: Make An Eco-Skating Rink that I wrote about my experience of building an ice rink for my kids (you can catch a glimpse of them skating on the rink in the post).

The full holiday gift guide for the Gym Rat includes all the reasons to work out, how many calories you can burn off doing winter sports, how to make your own gym clothes (no, you can't always wear your pj's)
, and how to create your own gym equipment. Check it all out here.

The cartoon is used with permission from New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly. It's from her funny new book, When Do They Serve the Wine.